Let’s get this over with, shall we? I’m told I must do the obligatory post Freshly Pressed post, so here it is.

Thank you to everyone who read and commented on the post. I’ve tried to respond to all of the comments and will continue to do so as they come in.

Many of you are here because you are regulars and wouldn’t bat an eye at me if I began writing a post here about wanting to drop kick my two year old son into the next time zone or if I went on a profanity laced tirade about some stupid fucktard in that white pickup truck who almost hit me while I was jogging this morning, yeah you, jerk!!

But, since my most recent post was Freshly Pressed, there are many new followers who are not sure how I roll. They must be addressed at some point, so why not now?

For my non-blogging buddies, Freshly Pressed just means that a recent post was sort of recognized as being something the editors thought was worth sharing on their featured posts page, so it got a lot of reads.

It wasn’t my most viewed post in a single day by far though still, as that was and will probably always be this sad bastard post that went viral a little bit on Facebook. After I wrote that post I was sort of torn between going back to being “funny” or carrying on with my somber writing like some sort of overly dramatic goth teen. In the end, I decided to just write whatever I felt like writing and be done with it. It’s part of the “all trades” theme, right? I’m not having any sort of trouble getting back into the groove after this most recent post, so fear not, I shall post funny soon!

Anyway, new people, thank you for choosing to follow me, but I wanted to come clean that I don’t always write about work related topics. In fact, it’s rare that I do. If police stories are your thing though, then there is a category called, oddly enough, police stories, just for you. Here’s one that I thought had a good chance of being Freshly Pressed after it appeared on the Black Box Warnings site.

I like to write about family, events or strangers that tickle my funny bone or that send me into some dimension of pissed off that’s probably irrational, but are certainly worth writing about. Check out the about page and the cast of characters to help follow along.

I also curse a bit, but I hope it’s not too much cursing for you to handle and certainly it’s never cursing just for the sake of cursing. Does that make any sense? I’m much better than I once was though, and it’s possible that profanity will be weened from my life forever at some point, but that point is not now.

I enjoy comments and will try to always respond to each one individually. I will also make every effort to visit your blog to see what you’re all about. I don’t follow all the blogs I read though, so don’t be offended if I don’t follow yours. If you write posts exclusively about why you think the color green is awesome, I probably won’t follow you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re a kickass person and appreciate you following me. However, everyone knows blue is the best color.

So with this quick thank you and welcome, I hope to not lose too many of you new followers and to better get to know many of you who do stick around. I consider many of the bloggers I’ve encountered “friends” in some perverse way, even though I’ve never met a single one of them in real life. It’s really been a great experience for me and I’m thankful to my wife for sort of encouraging me to start this blogging nonsense. It’s less nonsense that she has to hear directly from my mouth I guess.

Before I go though, I’d like to thank the following bloggers particularly and I think they’ll know why. Please read them as they are awesome:

kissmeoutofdesire – she’s Australian and that’s always awesome! If you’re a single man, I think she’s taking applications for suitors too! She’s pretty, but she already has one cat so I’d hurry before she becomes that person with lots of cats…

Freshly Pressed is wonderful … it opens you up to an entirely new and sophisticated world of spammer/followers. I hope that “dubaicallgirls” follows you … because that will make you world famous, just like me! (They are, I guess, “allah-way girls” … that is such a bad joke, I would never tell it on my blog, but clearly I have no problem messing up yours with it.) So glad to have found you and your words in the ether …

I haven’t found the dubaicallgirls yet, but there are a couple other spammers that have become friendly! I’m glad I found you as well. I mean I’m not a yoga person, but anyone who loves baseball is kickass in my book.

I used to work as a clerk for L.A.P.D. in the Wilshire station and then in Downtown L.A. Some of the stories I’ve heard from those officers were fierce but on the flip side, I had some officers tell me that in the many years they’ve worked for L.A.P.D. they only had to pull their gun a few times. It was just a chance with whatever call they got. At the Wilshire Station, I saw my fair share of bad guys since our clerk stations were only feet from the holding cells and holding bench. The most memorable to me was the guy who started bleeding out (A LOT) right in front of me…blegh. Also, the many drunkards in the cells who would cuss at me from their cells probably because they saw I was a civilian worker. But that wouldn’t last long as an officer would be right there yelling at them to not address me. I used to feel so protected 😛

But I could never be an officer. I would not be able to separate the stuff you guys see and not have it hit me hard. I’m a very emotional person. My older sister was an officer in Visalia, CA for many years. She isn’t anymore though not because she didn’t like it but because she just wanted to do something new.

When I read your post was FP and saw which one, I did think it will be mighty confusing to new followers if they don’t scroll back to see what sort of an eejit you usually are. As for your comments, you didn’t clarify that you never have anything nice to say!
I suppose it’s time to say “well don Don”. Delighted for you. I suppose this is your new excuse to stop the baby marathon training! 🙂

yay you! that was such a strong, emotional piece! so congrats. i am pleased to say,i appreciated that just as much as your crazy cursing stories of nonsense. fabulous nonsense. keep on trucking. or writing. and running. and never forget to enjoy a good cone. 🙂 ICM

Thanks for the shout out. Oh wait, that wasn’t for me. I knew you before you could string together two fucking paragraphs. Now someone throws and Fresh Pressing and a half rack of Bud Lime in the ring and I’m OUT.

Congrats on the FP. It was well deserved and about time. It’s tough because it does happen on posts that are out-of-character. It was in my experience too.
If you’re up for changing that you’ve never met a one of us in real life, then the next time I’m in STL we should meet for lunch or a BLL.

Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!! Your Tear Free Soccer post was like a beautiful warm hug of emotion for me. Loved it. Thank you for bringing me back to a wonderful time in my life. Well done, sir!!

Wait, wait, WAIT… YOU were freshly pressed?!? YOU who was whining back in May about never being freshly pressed?!? Squeaky wheel…

Just kidding, huge congrats to a very deserving post. And remember that I will ALWAYS want to read a post about you wanting to drop-kick your 2 yo. Can you swing by my place and get my 6 yo while you’re at it!

Congratulations! So now that you’re famous, if you become a total douche, I will no longer like you. Just saying. But I’m sure you won’t become a total douche. Because awesome people like me will come over and say “hey fucktard! you’re being a douche!” Cool?

Hooray Freshly Pressed! How did I miss that? I guess my head was lodged in my own ass that day. Which post was FP’d? I’m guessing the letter to the jackass you stopped for violating mutliple laws who whined when you wrote her the tickets? Either way, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Lol, so I guess I never responded to this comment, which is strange because you are literally my most favorite blogger person in the world. Well, you’re top 5 for SURE! Swear that’s the truth, yo! Okay, talk to you soon and thank you for being my friend.

Lucky for you I curse often as well. I have tried to limit my self to 2 but… Well were still striving for 2. I like all colors so I’ll see you on my blog HA!!!! Cop stories… well I wouldn’t want to read about a nurses day… or a musicians day for that matter (which is why I don’t post much) SSSOOO kick ASSS away…. wait what’s the pronoun on that… asses what ever!

Congrats on being freshly pressed AND making the Men of WordPress calendar – all in one month! I read your letter to Tech or part of it and wanted to read more. I run into folks like jane q. public more than I’d like and I really enjoyed reading your FP post, I’m hooked.

I may be one of the few new readers who did NOT get here because your were FP’d – never read ’em anymore, since I clicked a few and scratched my head at what WP considered “worthy.”

To my mind, Freshly Pressed is certainly a clever marketing strategy for WordPress, but I’m not sure what it does otherwise — besides discourage a lot of other writers languishing in relative obscurity, writing wonderful posts that are worth reading (encouraging them to write for what I consider the wrong reason).

FreshlyPressed also strikes me as incongruent with recent WordPress actions — shutting down blogs with “too many” likes, follows, and reblogs as “spammers,” refusing to revisit for redress or get specific about “limits.” WTF?! (I have a thing for integrity/congruence)

DESPITE their scare tactics, like you, I do my best to make time to check out anyone who follows my blog and will continue to do so. I “like” articles that strike my fancy – sharing with readers from my sidebar. I follow back all but those that would make no sense to – or offend – my other readers (no judgment personally – mainly the self-marketing and/or sex sites, etc.)

Most of my own posts have been written to support ADD/EFDers – so my eyes caught your link to the mom of autistic son – which I will investigate. Thanks!

Long story longer – I got to your “Dear Jane” through a reblog by a recent follower, then clicked to this post and was moved to comment on THAT one .

IMPRESSIVE by any standard of measure – and certainly “worthy” of being read widely, IMHO. Your writing is wonderful, strong language never bothered me in that context, and I will now click “follow.” (oh yeah, congrats, btw).
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
– ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder –
“It takes a village to transform a world!”